Sacked AAP minister sent to one-day police custody

A day after former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) minister Sandeep Kumar was arrested, following rape charges levelled against him by a woman, who allegedly featured with him in a objectionable video, a city court on Sunday sent him to one-day police custody. 

Meanwhile, sources said Kumar (36) alleged that one Praveen Kumar had been blackmailing and threatening him that he would harm the minister’s image.

Kumar was produced before a duty magistrate at the Rohini court on Sunday, which on the Delhi police’s plea sent him to one-day police custody. The police sought his remand for the further investigation into the case.

The police said Kumar was arrested on Saturday after the woman approached Outer Delhi's Sultanpuri police station, alleging that she was drugged and raped by the former Social Welfare and Women and Child Development Minister.

A case under Sections 376 and 328 of the IPC and section 67A of the Information Technology Act has been registered against Kumar. In the complaint, the woman alleged that she was offered a glass of soft drink, laced with sedatives, and was raped by Kumar at his Sultanpuri office-cum-residence, where she had gone to get her ration card made. She added that she fell unconscious, after consuming the drink.

Meanwhile, sources said a police team on Sunday visited the former minister’s house in F-block, Sultanpuri, where the woman was allegedly raped 11 months ago. Sources said Kumar, used to live alone in the house and a police team searched the room, where the video was allegedly shot.